Granada Hosting Discussion on Electric Utility Sale at Town Meeting

The Granada Board of Trustees have scheduled a public hearing for community residents to discuss the sale of Granada’s electric utility system.  The meeting will be held in the Granada Complex on Wednesday, September 18 at 6:30pm.  Representatives from Southeast Colorado Power Authority will be on hand to discuss the proposal and answer questions from the community. Currently the Granada Board purchases power from SECPA and resells it to local property owners. 

The discussion about a potential sale came up during the April, 2013 board meeting when a two cent per kilowatt hour rate hike was announced.  Board member Tom Grasmick said SECPA had doubts about being able to continue business at that rate beyond 2015.  Grasmick attributed the need for the increase to pass-along costs that are incurred when one entity sells electricity to another, as Granada was considered to be a utility. 

With that in mind, the board voted a one cent per kilowatt hour price increase across all five tiers of customers during their Wednesday, September 12 meeting.  Customers will be notified of the increase by the town.  Grasmick added that right now, the city is losing funds on the rate structure.  If SECPA becomes the entity that delivers power directly to customers, the city will be removed from the middle which will have an impact on the annual general fund.  The matter will go to a resolution for a vote in the April 2014 ballot. 

The Trustees passed two ordinances on second reading; Ordinance 2013-1 pertains to animal control regulations and 2013-2 deals with flood plain management.  Ordinance 2013-3 was passed on first reading and deals with the prohibition of marijuana stores and sales in the community.  The ordinance is similar to the ones adopted by the City of Lamar and Prowers County.  A second reading is expected before the October 1 statewide deadline which allows communities to declare ordinances curtailing Amendment 64 which passed during the November general election last year. 

Trustees are moving forward to secure a landfill consultant to help develop a required operations plan for the Granada Landfill.  Curtis Ahrendsen of American Environmental Consulting out of Littleton, Colorado advises the Holly Trustees on their landfill matters as well.  He recently surveyed the site and estimated a preliminary draft would run between $1,500 and $1,800.  One requirement is construction of a water monitoring well at the landfill site whether the landfill remains open or is closed in favor of a transfer station.  That decision will be made by the state health department. 

John McMillan said he did some recent clean up work at the End of the Line Arena at Camp Amache, moving the bleachers and scouring the area of weeds.  He also seeded the area.  The Trustees said the main road in the Camp needs to be policed of any litter, but both sides of the road should be mowed first.  McMillan said he would ask If the County road and bridge crew could provide some assistance on weed control.

Granada Police Chief, David Dougherty, said CDOT recently painted safety cross walks for school students just west of the north/south Main Street crossing over Highway 50, as well as the Irvin Street crossing.  The Trustees discussed contacting CDOT about lowering the speed limit in the school zone to less than the posted 35mph, as they felt that was too fast for highway traffic.  Dougherty said since school resumed, he’s been more mindful of the situation and has issued some sizable tickets to violators.  No make-up date has been set yet for the block part for National Night Out.  The chief thought sometime in October would work and couple it with a CSP sponsored bike rodeo for younger children. 

In other action, the Trustees approved, pending a view of the sites, a building permit for John Vargas for a backyard shed and for Natalie Musick for a carport, portable shed and two car garage.

By Russ Baldwin